FINRA establishes temporary trade reporting exception for overnight equity transactions

FINRA has adopted a limited, temporary exception to its equity trade reporting rules for qualifying overnight transactions occurring before 8:00 a.m. ET, according to a regulatory notice published earlier this week.

The change, which was published in Regulatory Notice 26-07 on March 9, is effective March 30, 2026, the regulator said.

The exception applies in the U.S. to over-the-counter trades in National Market System stocks reported to the FINRA/NYSE Trade Reporting Facility and the FINRA/Nasdaq Trade Reporting Facilities in Carteret and Chicago, according to the regulatory notice.

Under the amended FINRA Rules 6380A and 6380B, a “qualifying overnight transaction” must be appended with the .W modifier for trades priced using an average weighting or other special pricing formula and must either result from an overnight batch process or involve exchange-traded fund shares agreed during normal market hours but executed based on a net asset value published after the trade reporting facilities (TRFs) have closed, the notice said.

Once the TRF operating hours are extended to open at 4:00 a.m. ET on March 30, 2026, trades executed between 4:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on a business day must continue to be reported as soon as practicable and no later than 10 seconds after execution. Trades executed when the TRFs are closed must be reported by 4:15 a.m. after the system opens.

FINRA’s new exception also allows last sale reports for qualifying overnight transactions executed between midnight and 8:00 a.m. ET to be reported by 8:15 a.m. ET on trade date, with a unique modifier denoting execution outside normal market hours.

Qualifying overnight trades executed between 8:00 p.m. and midnight ET, or on any non-business day, may be reported by 8:15 a.m. on the following business day as “as/of” trades, also marked with the out-of-hours modifier.

FINRA states the measure responds to member concerns about operational challenges in reporting certain overnight activity once the earlier opening time takes effect. The temporary exception will remain in force until the earlier of any further extension of TRF operating hours or December 31, 2027, FINRA said.